Sadly I was foolish enough to purchase a Mini from Canterbury Motoring World, owned and run by the same people behind Big Motoring World. For my partner.

I attach the transcript of the email chain with Craig the manager.

We have been provided with 50 pounds in cheque form as "good will" gesture. I should point out this took two months, numerous emails and the threat of legal action to achieve this. The cheque was accompanied by a very sarcastic and horrible letter.

I have since had the vehicle inspected elsewhere. It has over 1.5K worth of repairs required to be road legal and safe for my partner to drive.

I can not advise strongly enough to please avoid dealing with this so called dealership.

Dear Craig,

I am writing to you in respect of your recent dealings with my partner **** **** and in respect of the below detailed transaction :

09/08/2012 Vehicle purchased from yourselves (Canterbury Motoring World.) Assurances granted that the vehicle had received a full, service, inspection and any issues were detailed on the MOT.

10/08/2012 Less than 12hrs after purchasing the vehicle it is unable to start. My partner ********* is left stranded with a vehicle, that is unable to start.
As I am aware my partner contacted yourselves immediately and was informed that no help, corrective action or attention would be provided.

*****, calls myself I advise her to contact yourselves again as this is simply laughable customer service.

I understand ******* then spoke to you at length where she had to take a strong approach in order for you to offer any assistance. I would like to point out this was a lady on her own, who had acted in good faith in purchasing a vehicle from yourself less than 12hrs earlier. (The AA, RAC, Green flag any motoring service have specific rules and regulations around the priority placed on lady’s on their own.)

You and all of your staff should be thoroughly ashamed of yourselves for conducting yourselves in such a thoroughly unprofessional manner and total lack of customer care, after service or frankly concern for a customer.

Eventually the vehicle was recovered, ****** was told to wait, whilst provided with a courtesy car. This ******* did for over three hrs before eventually calling yourselves and being informed the vehicle had received a full inspection and was available for pick up. (I would point out, that ****** had to call yourselves, again rather laughable.)

On picking the vehicle up, ******* was informed the vehicle had received a full inspection. ****** requested a breakdown of the work, was informed this was unable to be produced at the time and would be posted to us as a matter of urgency.

12/08/2012 ******* and myself take the vehicle for a drive, ******* is understandably nervous and wishes to be accompanied post the events of the 10/08.

On the first attempt at stopping and leaving the vehicle on returning to it, it is predictably unable to start. 2hrs after placing a call to a road side assistance recovery service and at the cost of £100 the TEN YEAR OLD vehicle battery is replaced.

I am sure you can imagine my personal confusion on how a vehicle that received a full inspection and service before being placed on sale, another one before being handed over to us and a further one only two days earlier could have a ten year old, almost permanently discharged battery (The AA engineers words, not mine.)

13/08/2012 ***** again is forced to drive to your show room as predictably no breakdown of the work undertaken has been provided. I believe again ****** discussed the matter with yourself, where you offered to reimburse the cost of the new battery (at the time of writing this has not been received and I believe we have again chased today. This is now promised to be with me tomorrow the 17/08/2012)

This is frankly the most laughable customer service I have personally experienced I STRONGLY suggest as an absolute minimum your provided ****** with a gesture to say sorry for the inconvenience, stress and the horrendous level of service and conversations she has been forced to have with you.

I have far better things to do with my time. I certainly don’t expect to spend my one day off, spending three hrs in a car park awaiting a breakdown service. For a vehicle that we have just purchased from a dealer that promotes itself as being “small enough to care” (Your advertisements not my words.)

Again some form of compensation or gesture is appropriate here.
I have passed a copy of all of the correspondence and the details of ******* conversations with yourselves to my solicitor.

I will hold any impending action until I hear back from you and I do hope we can settle this matter with the minimum of fuss and we are made to feel like a valuable and wanted customer once more.

Sadly I was foolish enough to purchase a Mini from Canterbury Motoring World, owned and run by the same people behind Big Motoring World. For my partner.

I attach the transcript of the email chain with Craig the manager.

We have been provided with 50 pounds in cheque form as "good will" gesture. I should point out this took two months, numerous emails and the threat of legal action to achieve this. The cheque was accompanied by a very sarcastic and horrible letter.

I have since had the vehicle inspected elsewhere. It has over 1.5K worth of repairs required to be road legal and safe for my partner to drive.

I can not advise strongly enough to please avoid dealing with this so called dealership.

Dear Craig,

I am writing to you in respect of your recent dealings with my partner **** **** and in respect of the below detailed transaction :

09/08/2012 Vehicle purchased from yourselves (Canterbury Motoring World.) Assurances granted that the vehicle had received a full, service, inspection and any issues were detailed on the MOT.

10/08/2012 Less than 12hrs after purchasing the vehicle it is unable to start. My partner ********* is left stranded with a vehicle, that is unable to start.
As I am aware my partner contacted yourselves immediately and was informed that no help, corrective action or attention would be provided.

*****, calls myself I advise her to contact yourselves again as this is simply laughable customer service.

I understand ******* then spoke to you at length where she had to take a strong approach in order for you to offer any assistance. I would like to point out this was a lady on her own, who had acted in good faith in purchasing a vehicle from yourself less than 12hrs earlier. (The AA, RAC, Green flag any motoring service have specific rules and regulations around the priority placed on lady’s on their own.)

You and all of your staff should be thoroughly ashamed of yourselves for conducting yourselves in such a thoroughly unprofessional manner and total lack of customer care, after service or frankly concern for a customer.

Eventually the vehicle was recovered, ****** was told to wait, whilst provided with a courtesy car. This ******* did for over three hrs before eventually calling yourselves and being informed the vehicle had received a full inspection and was available for pick up. (I would point out, that ****** had to call yourselves, again rather laughable.)

On picking the vehicle up, ******* was informed the vehicle had received a full inspection. ****** requested a breakdown of the work, was informed this was unable to be produced at the time and would be posted to us as a matter of urgency.

12/08/2012 ******* and myself take the vehicle for a drive, ******* is understandably nervous and wishes to be accompanied post the events of the 10/08.

On the first attempt at stopping and leaving the vehicle on returning to it, it is predictably unable to start. 2hrs after placing a call to a road side assistance recovery service and at the cost of £100 the TEN YEAR OLD vehicle battery is replaced.

I am sure you can imagine my personal confusion on how a vehicle that received a full inspection and service before being placed on sale, another one before being handed over to us and a further one only two days earlier could have a ten year old, almost permanently discharged battery (The AA engineers words, not mine.)

13/08/2012 ***** again is forced to drive to your show room as predictably no breakdown of the work undertaken has been provided. I believe again ****** discussed the matter with yourself, where you offered to reimburse the cost of the new battery (at the time of writing this has not been received and I believe we have again chased today. This is now promised to be with me tomorrow the 17/08/2012)

This is frankly the most laughable customer service I have personally experienced I STRONGLY suggest as an absolute minimum your provided ****** with a gesture to say sorry for the inconvenience, stress and the horrendous level of service and conversations she has been forced to have with you.

I have far better things to do with my time. I certainly don’t expect to spend my one day off, spending three hrs in a car park awaiting a breakdown service. For a vehicle that we have just purchased from a dealer that promotes itself as being “small enough to care” (Your advertisements not my words.)

Again some form of compensation or gesture is appropriate here.
I have passed a copy of all of the correspondence and the details of ******* conversations with yourselves to my solicitor.

I will hold any impending action until I hear back from you and I do hope we can settle this matter with the minimum of fuss and we are made to feel like a valuable and wanted customer once more.

I would appreciate a prompt reply.

Pathetic. So you havent got back any of the £1.5k you have spent either?

This letter tells you all you need to know about Big Motoring World and their customer service ethics.

I have had many cars from these guys with no problem, they are the cheepest around and sell loads of cars, don't be put off by some bad stories not everyone is going to be happy....... my last car I got from them 3 months ago was an m3 csl, I looked everywhere and these guys were the cheepest and best......... I think if you want to be treated like a king and pay well over the odds go to BMW main dealer, but for good cheep cars these guys are the best, just go and have a look.

Pathetic. So you havent got back any of the £1.5k you have spent either?

This letter tells you all you need to know about Big Motoring World and their customer service ethics.

Nothing at all. I really can not stress enough please do not use them. This has dominated my life since purchasing, it is like dealing with someone who has zero social, people skills. More worryingly clearly not alone in this experience quite how they are able to still trade is a massive cause for concern.

I wish I had found this thread earlier, feel very foolish for not. Feel even more foolish for so clearly being taken as a fool and the ability of the dealership to yell at a customer is simply beyond words, let alone the dishonest and frankly horrific approach to a transaction.

It should be noted that Big Motoring World are branching out and now have Canterbury Motoring World in, yep, you guessed it, Canterbury.

I would never assume though that Canterbury Motoring World are rubbish, dishonest, cowboy, rip-off merchants selling crap, poor quality cars, as I would definitely not assume that of Big Motoring World either.......

A couple of years ago, a member of babybmw posted a link to your epic 'Big Motoring World thread'.
We all laughed and pointed, but then the thread fell down the list.

Last night a new member called 'Big Motoring World' bumped the thread in true Big Motoring World style, defending the company and inviting emails

Big Motoring World said...."My name is Peter Waddell I'm the owner of this group of company my e mail address is peterbmws@hotmail.co.uk. As I'm not always there as I run 7 company . I noticed that this forum talks about our company yes we have over 700 cars mostly bmws and we cannot get everything right please e mail me with anything you think we should change as we do try we have been running for over 20 years and are still expanding we sell over 400 cars a month and we will never please ever one but as I said hear is my e mail we have been abused buy other car dealers how are not supermarket just like a corner shop to asdas but people now shop different. So because they can't compete on price they right on forum as they can't be named please if we sell a car to anyone how is not happy please please e mail me on peterbmws@ hotmail.co.uk. Thanks for reading this"

This is a link to the bbmw thread. Don't worry, as ours is only 3 pages long

A couple of years ago, a member of babybmw posted a link to your epic 'Big Motoring World thread'.
We all laughed and pointed, but then the thread fell down the list.

Last night a new member called 'Big Motoring World' bumped the thread in true Big Motoring World style, defending the company and inviting emails

Big Motoring World said...."My name is Peter Waddell I'm the owner of this group of company my e mail address is peterbmws@hotmail.co.uk. As I'm not always there as I run 7 company . I noticed that this forum talks about our company yes we have over 700 cars mostly bmws and we cannot get everything right please e mail me with anything you think we should change as we do try we have been running for over 20 years and are still expanding we sell over 400 cars a month and we will never please ever one but as I said hear is my e mail we have been abused buy other car dealers how are not supermarket just like a corner shop to asdas but people now shop different. So because they can't compete on price they right on forum as they can't be named please if we sell a car to anyone how is not happy please please e mail me on peterbmws@ hotmail.co.uk. Thanks for reading this"

This is a link to the bbmw thread. Don't worry, as ours is only 3 pages long

Great, isn't it I posted the original link on BabyBMW back in 2010 and as you say, the thread was dead. As a UK based forum, there is more caution over there so a reluctance to be too critical about a UK company. The post quickly died - until now. I'll give BIG his due, if 'foot shooting' were made an Olympic sport, he would now be the proud owner of a shiny gold medal!

Everyone needs to keep this thread going to bringing maximum shame to this company!

This lot sound like a total bunch of clowns, a Mickey Mouse outfit that consumers shouldn’t touch with a barge pole.

We need to bring this lot to their knees and make them beg for forgiveness. They need to issue a press release apologising for the anger and inconvenience caused and put right everything that they have done wrong!

That e-mail from the owner if genuine says it all really. terrible spelling and grammer, backed up by a hotmail account! Why a hotmail account when their sales address is sales@bigmotoringworld.co.uk ?

Maybe this is not a genuine post or email or the guy is even slower than we thought and has used his own personal hotmail account from the 90's. Either way something smells very fishy. I imagine it is probably Big Motoring world.

And to bump a thread with a reply like that. Some people should not be allowed computers (if genuine).

Just a nother thing to note that if we keep posting the keywords in this thread it will most likley have a negative impact on the search engine rankings due to over optimisation. Unfortunatly the days of simple, lazy SEO through spam and keyword stuffing are long gone. It seems it's all about content and diversity now!